Observatory Park was developed at Turner Farm from the old Nike missile site.  Jeffrey Kretsch told Sky and Telescope how the Analemma Society helped turn a former Cold War misile control site into a thriving observatory park.  Back in the 50's Turner Farm was a dairy farm, but with the Cold War in 1955, the Federal Government took 11.7 acres of the farm to build the Nike Missile Control Center W-83 as one of the first of 13 sites where surface to air missiles were installed.  Originally operated by the U.S. Army, in 1961 the complex with its buildings and radar structures was turned over to the U.S. Army Map Service, which a decade later became the Defense Mapping Agency.  Nike missles were obsolete, but the Turner Farm facility was given a new charter to accurately measure the earth's gravitational field by tracking satellites.  How did Observatory Park come about?  Read more at The Making of Turner Farm Observatory in the Star-Gazers Corner of Sky and Telescope.

The DMA facility closed in 1993 and the land turned eventually turned over to the Fairfax County Park Authority (FCPA) in 1999 increasing adjacent parkland that was purchessed in 1975. (Final purchess of the farmhouse was accomplished in 2010).   In 2000, the Analemma Society was formed and shortly after entered into a cooperative agreement with the FCPA for the development of Observatory Park for science education using astronomy.